Travel cot advice for FTM

[Anonymouslyconercned]

Probably going to sound a bit daft …..
FTM to 5 month old. Staying away over the weekend for one night and hotel has advised they will put a travel cot in the room.
SIL said to take my own sheet for the mattress, or my own mattress altogether.

are travel cot mattresses bigger than next to me? My crib sheets are only for a next to me (snuz) mattress and when I google there’s lots of different information around travel cots. And if they are bigger I need to quickly buy and get washed before Thursday!

any help would be very much welcomed and appreciated!

Hello! I would first check with the hotel what type of cot they are able to provide - some provide a nice comfy mattress with a sheet and then you don’t need to do anything.
Some only do an uncomfortable travel cot with no mattress in which case I would get your own travel cot and mattress. It’s bulky but it’s worth it for sleep. Have fun!

Ps. Travel cots come in various sizes

Thank you so much!! I did see that they’re all different sizes and that’s when I thought blimey I have no clue lol. Oh god the thought of LO being on no mattress!!! Good job I’m an over thinker. Although I wish I started overthinking all this sooner haha!

do you have a travel cot that you would recommend? @ExcitingRicotta

Definitely get your own travel cot. Baby Bjorn one is great and lightweight but expensive, perfectly good options from Argos for cheap - at least you know it's clean.

My experience of travel cots is that they can vary massively. Honestly I found it so unpredictable that I got my own travel cot to use (although that isn’t perfect). We got the Cuggl super light travel cot, it’s easy to set up and not too bulky to carry. The main drawback is that the mattress isn’t a standard size so was hard to find.

We did find that if the mattress was thin putting a towel underneath the sheet would help soften it a little.

Something else to consider is the level of light in the room - my DS needed pitch black to sleep, and we found using a snooze shade really helped. It’s very tightly secured and can’t fall into the cot if it’s installed correctly.

Also, it's very likely your baby will just hardly sleep at all while away, whatever the travel cot, so you may well be co sleeping while DH sleeps in the travel cot...

We just take our Moses basket in the car, or use the pram lie flat bit. Or just a cot mattress and they sleep in the floor?

I’ve never seen a travel cot that wasn’t miserable and hard looking even with a mattress, and my first baby would never sleep in them. We always brought a portable bed rail and got rooms with a king bed or a double and a single and put the bed rail on one side of the double for the baby to sleep there.

@Immemorialelms your reply made me lol !!! DP will absolutely be in the travel cot…. I’ve asked for a spare just for him lol!!

Thanks ladies for all the replies. I’d been trying to avoid co sleeping in case DD got used to it - sometimes it only takes me to do something once for it to be a habit with her! But from what most people have said (and from doing more reading online) travel cots are super uncomfortable so it might very well have to be snuggles with mummy all night!

We always take our own. My son had the Baby Bjorn from 18 months (we got a second hand unused one from eBay) but we've got a Babymore Air Motion for travelling with our soon to be newborn.

We;ve got this one https://www.johnlewis.com/nuna-sena-aire-travel-cot/charcoal/p6173598?s_ppc=2dx_mixed_fashion_BAU&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwh4-wBhB3EiwAeJsppG22X3UbL2R1CSN4LMYIV8hRZY0SLeATZfNHOnEQw9ds8JlghhdcABoCtTQQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds super expensive new but bought 2nd hand from a friend. It's really comfy and having 2 tiers made it easier to get baby in and out when he was little, we tried a cheap mothercare one and I couldn't reach to lie him down even when he was about 5 months old!

You never know! First time we went away with our first she slept through 12 hours both nights having never done so before (and then obviously not for months after 😅) so be prepared but see how you go.
Basic cot like this https://amzn.eu/d/6f3wITS
with a proper cot mattress is super comfy. Ours has been used for years now at grandparents too. Just fold mattress in half and shove in back of car. Sheets from home might smell more familiar.
also if LO is still in a bedside cot at home we found that really easy to fold up and take away?
if you’re not travelling by car you probs need to spend more money and accept that it won’t be as comfy / or cosleep…
have fun!